panthers55

If you casually look at stats you might say we weren't bad. But if you look at situational football it was a different matter. Defense isn't about how many yards you give up but how many points you surrender and when. We played prevent defense between the 20s and then stiffened up when our backs were to the wall. That meant teams routinely were in field goal range before we even started playing defense. That is called bend until you break. Opponents converted 3rd downs more than they were stopped. And it wasn't the personnel it was the scheme. When McDermott first got here he put in his system and we weren't that good but we were aggressive and we blitzed and that translated into an aggressive defense as guys learned their jobs and gained experience. Snow came in and played 3 and 4 man rushes from set pieces with few stunts or blitzes. Behind it a soft cover zone with guys standing around waiting to tackle the receiver after he catches the ball. Heaven forbid anything gets behind you. For Snow to be successful he needs to scrap the 3-5-3 and put in a ravenesque 3-4 with lots of misdirection and pressure fronts. He has the corners and linebackers to run it. With our nose tackles and DEs we have all the ingredients. But we have to have the scheme. Without it all the talent in the world isn't worth a hit of beans without the scheme to maximize the talent.

Exactly what I suggested held back the whole offense under Gase. Terrible scheme, no audibles and predictable play calling. Night and day different from what we have here.

I hope you are right about the defense. You always know when you bring in college coaches to roles they have not ever held in the NFL you are going to have a big learning curve. You only hope it doesn't take too long. Snow has been given a ton of high draft picks sprinkled in with good vets in key positions so talent isn't the question. And if Snow is such a good developer of young talent he should be able to whip them.into a cohesive unit. Hopefully he has been watching the most successful defenses in the league and emulating what they do well. After all the NFL is a copycat league and the best defenses I see are aggressive and dictate to the offense. Certainly 180 degrees from what we did last year. Hopefully he has figured it out.

I hope the defense is much improved over last year. We need good field position and not to have shootouts to win. Our offense is a possession short yardage passing game relying on getting yards after the catch. Coupled with a dynamic running game we have the ability to score points. But we need a solid defense that can get off the field. Otherwise each possession becomes more important as both sides eat up the clock.

I agree with those who say a qbs success is heavily dependent on where they go when they get drafted. People look at Mahomes and say we need him too without acknowledging that he had a great coach and a lot of talent around him. Sure he was really good but could he have gone to a Chicago or Oakland and turned them around like he did KC. I don't know. Fields would be best served sitting and learning for a year and then becoming the starter much like Aaron Rodgets did. In today's NFL getting to sit like Lance may get to do behind Garropolo is an exception not the rule.

I would hold off on the excitement yet. We gave up almost 30 points a game in 2019 but still gave up right at 26 last year. A small improvement but hardly enough to win more than you lose. We were in the mid to low 20s in most categories like sack percentage, opponent third down conversion of almost 60%, etc. We were not a middle of the pack defense but rather a bottom 10 defense in most categories and I don't agree that it was forced by lack of personnel. The rookies played better than the vets and our 3-5-3 scheme was dismal and needs to stay in college. Snow will get better I hope and he surely has more talent but until he actually creates a good defense color me hopeful but not excited.

Dallas fans are some of the worst. Obnoxious and yelling about being America's Team. What made it worse was losing to them in the regular season often with terrible calls. I remember Peppers blocking a field goal and then getting penalized for roughing the kicker when the ref said he didn't touch it and film showed the ball trajectory was clearly altered.

I hate Atlanta and so did many of the players who are largely gone. I know many past players hated the Saints as well. With so many players coming from the Saints including our OC Joe Brady, I wonder what the players would say now??

I only hear that at soccer matches. Never heard cheers during golf. Usually making the crowd silent. What did I miss???

Considering they averaged 15 points a game last year and they have a rookie starter they shouldn't score more than 17 if our defense is doing their job.

The decision was not Darnold over Fields but rather Darnold and Horn over Darnold and Fields who essentially play the same position and wouldn't be on the field at the same time versus finding 2 starters who will both start at their positions day 1. If Darnold sucks we will draft a guy next year at QB given if this happened we would be picking early.

We are strong we are fit, we eat Wheaties, you eat sh1t.

There isn't an excuse for losing any game you play. Sometimes it happens but I doubt it this time against the Jets. And if Wilson comes in and lights us up it will be on Snow and the defense not the offense. The question won't be scoring points but how many we give up. Hopefully with all the new additions and a better scheme we won't get abused like last year when we couldn't get off the field.

A lot depends on how they develop Sam. I expect a dynamic running game and using a short passing game to get the ball out quickly. There seems to be an emphasis on mobility and moving up in the pocket instead of sitting back in the pocket like a statue. This o$ense isn't going to be close to what Darnold has played in before. So comparisons between now and with the Jets aren't really germaine. The real question is whether Sam can change into the quarterback we need him to be which is semi-mobile quick thinking and willing to play within the system. He has to pick up this system and learn how to use it to manipulate the defense which is what Teddy did well. He has the physical skills so now we see what he has between his ears.

Exactly. When it is 3rd and long and you know you are facing a heavy rush with no real protection you end up trying to do too much to make a play and instead screw up. One of the big things Sam will need to learn is to.play within the offense and trust his guys to do their job. Something he didn't really have in NY. That is why these team building sessions and hanging out after practice is so vital to build a sense of trust and respect.

To me the biggest changes we need to make are on defense. I know folks give Snow a pass because we had so many rookies and young guys playing but honestly without guys like Brown and Chinn we would have been even worse. Our scheme between the 20s was awful. Our 3 man rush was so predictable and easy to block coupled with a passive zone defense where we didn't even attack receivers when they wandered into our zone looked like a high school team. Then we would go to more of a pressure look and blitz more frequently inside of the 20 and we got better results although still not good. We only keep other teams to less than 20 points on 4 occasions and won all 4 games. We gave up more than 30 points 6 times and lost them all. Our offense controlled the ball fairly well or the defense would have looked much worse. We were 28th in red zone offensive scoring scoring TDs 50% of the time and allowed opposing teams to score TDs 65% of the time on defense for a ranking of 22nd. Without a much improved defense it won't matter what the offense is doing.

Teddy wasn't able to change when defenses figured out he wasn't going to throw it more than 10 yards down the field. Defenders played our receivers tight and didn't worry about double moves which compressed the field and hurt our run game as well. It wouldn't have taken that much for Teddy to have been successful last year and his unwillingness or inability to push the ball downfield doomed him. Even in 2 minute drills at the end of the game he was nickel and diming the ball down the field. I think if he had taken more chances and finished a few drives Teddy would still be here.

High: Horn. He is a baller with a mean streak. Just what we need. His overaggressiveness might get him burned a few times but he is the real deal. Unsure: I am putting Darnold on this list given things are up in the air. I suspect he will do better than many think if we can build his confidence early and get a few quality wins. Bad: Ian Thomas. If he makes the roster I doubt he is the starter by years end.

Funny that some projections suggest that Darnold would have been the second QB drafted if he came out this year. That is ahead of Wilson who replaced him. Darnold was drafted at 21 and was the youngest QB drafted in 2018 and the youngest QB starter for the Jets. He started 1 year in high school and 2 at USC so those saying he really doesn't have much starting experience and lots of upside are on solid ground.

Now let's add that the scheme offered Darnold little flexibility given Gase didn't let Darnold audible out of plays and called everything in from the sidelines. There were limited blitz pickup calls and few ways to mitigate pressure when it got dialed up. And you get some idea why many of us hope that Darnold can do.much better here.

Darnold will get his shot with a good scheme and lots of talent. If he bombs here he will not get a chance elsewhere and he knows it. I expect he will have a good year and are least be decent as our scheme doesn't require QBs to play outside of their ability level. I expect there to be lots of easier throws and dumpoffs until Darnold feels confident in our system. This is a very quarterback friendly system. Something that plays to his strengths.

And Belichick did it with his second team. Tom Coughlin was Jaquars coach for 7 years and then went to the Giants. He won it his fourth year there. So there are certainly examples of coaches winning Super Bowls with their second team after failing to win it with their first. That is off the top of my head. There might be others.

It also shows how hard it is to develop a consistent winner. Seems we are finally finding the processes to put in place to hopefully be one of those teams.

Although it was 9 years long, this was his first job as coach. And I doubt he was given free rein here like in Washington. Outside of Carolina Rivera is seen as a good coach and when you see the distractions he managed to end up in the playoffs (in arguably the worse division in football) most everyone would consider him a real success so far in Washington. Just like he is learning to move on and adjust the Panthers have done the same. Rivera was good for a number of things and bad for just as many. Rhule and Fitterer have both put their stamp on the team and we are looking like we are really improving. No need complaining about the past when we have the present and exciting future. I made it a practice to let folks go when they are no longer a Panther. Sure I will follow their progress but they lose the ability to really impact my emotions and particularly make me mad. It does help.especially in these continued difficult times.

Thank you. Glad to see you are keeping up with the trend over the past 10 years. Some of the best edge rushers like Von Miller, JJ and TJ Watt, Khalil Mack rush from the right side. That is just off the cuff I am sure there are more.